It's cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey Northern Britain and Scotland are in the grip of ice and snow, so it seems like a good time to talk about the expression "brass monkey weather". This idiom is used to indicate that the weather is very cold: It's brass monkey weather today, isn't it! This usage stems from a longer phrase: It's cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey. This is generally perceived as a humorous reference to some unfortunate brass monkey who loses his testicles if the weather is too cold. However, as The Guardian reports, the phrase has quite another origin: During Nelson's time, a brass monkey was a triangle of brass attached to the ship's deck. Cannonballs were stacked in a pyramid on the brass monkey to stop them from rolling loose. Brass, like all metals, contracts as it gets colder. When the temperature was sufficiently cold for the brass to contract enough, the cannonballs would escape from their confinement. So the expression has nothing to do with monkeys or testicles, just basic science!
Shucks. It was a good story, but apparently doesn't pass the snopes test. http://www.snopes.com/language/stories/brass.asp Delete if you wish..... I'll go back to my wine.
No, PB. You're just fine in your input. Just saw a monkey running up the street clutching his groin. Going to the office in your sailing thermals and long-johns is no fun. Just taking a pee is a 1/2 hour process and a lot of funny looks. Goddammit, summer can't be that far away, can it?
I've read what snopes has to say, and, although old, I was not around in the 18th & 19th centuries so I can't claim 1st hand knowledge. But I would like to point out that the gun deck was not generally the main deck, at least not on Old Ironsides. The first time I heard the brass monkey explanation was from the guide aboard the U.S.S. Constitution, and it made sense to me. However, I would love to hear from someone who has access to a ship's inventory from those days to find exactly what that brass plate was called.
Thank you Marmot. After checking that and several other sources it does indeed appear to be urban legand. Have to re-educate that tour guide one of these days. Cadets, humph In the mean time it's been freezing them off an old Irish monkey here in NY for a few days and the snow blower will be out (again ) by Wednesday. So looking forward to Spring.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Stanthorpe-brass-monkey-1942.jpg Just thought you guys might like to see a real brass monkey
This monkey isn't cold he's in a naturally occuring hot spring in Japan and I think he is a "macaques" for the last 40 years they have used the the hot springs as a way to keep warm in the winter
I wish we had brass monkeys. There's one nicking my mango's every morning and trying to steal my partners bra's from the laundryrack on the balcony. Probaply not cold enough for brass monkeys here...
How about those davastating floods in Queensland, Australia. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYUpkPTcqPY&feature=player_embedded#!
